Leadership & Business Strategy
Senior executives, organizational strategists, ICF-certified coaches, and business advisors.
OUR STORY
The need that inspired BeActChange.
Before founding BeActChange, we spent years leading important initiatives across government, academia, and business. We understood the responsibility of making consequential decisions, managing complex work, and finding the right expertise to help us succeed. Along the way, we recognized a need for partners who could truly understand the people and organizations they served, appreciate the experience they already brought, and take personal responsibility for the quality of their work.
Our own partnership began while working as diplomats on global strategies, often traveling to a different country every few weeks. From the beginning, our complementary strengths in strategy, systems thinking, leadership, and execution made working together feel natural. We shared high standards, curiosity, and a commitment to work that mattered.
Those experiences led us to create BeActChange. Over the years, the firm grew through relationships with professionals we had worked alongside and come to trust across countries and industries. What began as a shared vision became a multidisciplinary firm shaped by the expertise, values, and contributions of the people who are part of it today.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
The people who started it all.
CO-FOUNDER
Dr. Esther Zeledon
Executive · Scientist · Global Strategist · Award-Winning Author · TEDx Speaker
Esther brings more than two decades of experience as an executive, scientist, and global strategist across government, business, and academia. A former U.S. humanitarian diplomat with a PhD from UC Berkeley, she has directed international portfolios approaching $100 million, built multidisciplinary teams, and forged partnerships across governments, businesses, and communities. Her work combines strategic leadership, scientific thinking, and a deep understanding of people and institutions.
She is the internationally award-winning author of Creating Your Limitless Life, recognized by the International Latino Book Awards and Living Now Book Awards, and endorsed by James Redfield, New York Times bestselling author of The Celestine Prophecy. Her writing, research, and TEDx speaking explore human potential, high achievement, organizational leadership, the experience of being the only one, and the pursuit of meaningful work. She has helped thousands of leaders and professionals recognize their strengths and navigate significant opportunities and transitions.
Recognized with distinguished U.S. government honors, including Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor Awards, Esther is also a Tory Burch Foundation Fellow and Vital Voices Visionary. Her ideas have been featured in national and international media and discussed in more than 100 podcast appearances. She brings experience in strategy, organizational transformation, executive positioning, and global partnerships to the people and organizations she advises.
AREAS OF EXPERTISEStrategy · Human Potential · Executive Positioning · Leadership · Global Partnerships · Organizational Transformation
CO-FOUNDER
Dr. Paul Rivera
Diplomat · Executive · Economist · AI Strategist · Academic Leader
Paul brings decades of experience as a diplomat, executive, economist, and strategist across government, international development, higher education, and business. He has led the development of more than 100 strategic plans and facilitated workshops worldwide on strategy, data storytelling, monitoring and evaluation, and organizational performance. As a PEPFAR coordinator, he represented and coordinated priorities and data across multiple U.S. government agencies, supporting informed decisions and complex international initiatives.
Recruited as a founding member of a university, Paul helped shape its institutional strategy, academic programs, and curriculum. He has served as visiting faculty at Harvard Kennedy School in its Master in Public Administration program. An AI strategist and data scientist with extensive expertise in large language models and emerging technologies, he combines analytical rigor, institutional leadership, and practical experience solving complex challenges.
Fluent in six languages, Paul has lived and worked across countries and cultures, facilitating learning experiences for diverse international audiences. His interests reflect a remarkable breadth of capabilities: he is a black belt, lifeguard, former EMT, and hands-on real estate investor who has renovated and flipped homes. An experienced speaker and podcast host, he has delivered invited commencement addresses and brings intellectual curiosity, versatility, and practical problem-solving to his work.
AREAS OF EXPERTISEStrategic Planning · Economics · Executive Leadership · AI & LLMs · Data Storytelling · Monitoring & Evaluation · Institutional Development